The Paving Blog

One of the very coolest-looking ways of using pavers is in the construction of sidewalks.  It is entirely possible to make an undulating, curving walkway out of even the most uncompromisingly straight paving blocks.One can see from the pictures above that a curved line is a most doable and attractive thing in a landscape.

Making curving paver sidewalks is actually not as hard as it might appear.  Generally, of course, being a contractor means I have to cut a lot of pavers to conform to any sort of curve.  Now, having said this. one can tweak and bend pavers by spacing without creating too much of a gap.  There is just this vague but obvious limit on how much space to leave between them.  The rule of thumb is not to exceed 1/4 inch, but that is a contractor’s statement. For us, the general demand is pretty steep.  For a homeowner, I would imagine there is a much larger tolerance, and many of these still look terrific.

Generally, I typically lay out the pavers beyond the lines to be cut, then scribe in a crayola-inscribed line often using irrigation pipe to form a smooth and consistent curve to where I want it, using the pipe held in place above the surface to trace alongside of.  We then go to our saw or guillotine cutter and cut along the line.  Amazingly excellent curves can have a series of very straight lines and still look positively curvy.  A look at the pictures here can prove this.  All of these examples were cut in this manner.